Planning the Vegetable Garden.pdf
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SP291-M.indd
Vegetables
SP291-M
Planning the Vegetable Garden
David W. Sams, Professor Emeritus
David W. Sams, Professor Emeritus
Why Plan?
A garden plan will save time, space, work and money.
Yields will be increased, as will the length of the harvest
season. Best of all, you will be able to harvest the amount
of high-quality garden produce you desire at the time you
choose.
Full sunlight produces the most productive gardens. Six
hours of daily sunlight are probably the minimum for good
production. Trees and hedges should be avoided, as they not
only reduce sunlight but also compete with vegetables for
water and nutrients.
Level sites are less subject to erosion than sloping sites,
but a slight slope toward the south hastens warming and
drying of the soil early in the spring. A slightly sloping site
will also have better air drainage and less frost damage
than a level site or an exposed hilltop.
Gardens near the house are more accessible. They are
also easier to care for and to protect. There are generally
fewer wild animals near the house and water for irrigation
will be available. It may be necessary to fence dogs, farm
animals and children out of the garden. Frequent harvests are
also easier and more likely when gardens are near the house.
Lastly, garden sites must correspond in size to the
amount of garden produce desired. Intensive cultivation
techniques can only partially substitute for a small site.
Evaluate Past Gardens
Begin to plan your next garden by considering your
past gardens. What varieties did you like well or not at all?
Would you like to extend the harvest season or increase or
decrease the amount of your harvest? Would several small
staggered plantings be desirable? Did you try something
new last year that you want to include again this year? Is
there something new that you want to try this year? Has
your family increased or decreased in size? Do you want to
preserve more or less food this year?
Select a Site
The ideal garden soil is deep, fertile, well-drained
and medium-textured. Such soils are usually dark-
colored. Fine-textured, clay soils are difficult to work and
frequently form clods or crust as they dry, especially if
they were turned while wet. Very sandy soils do not retain
moisture or nutrients well. Poorly drained soils may be
difficult to plant at recommended planting dates, may be
very low in nutrients or high in acidity and may encourage
plant diseases.
Soil Test
A soil test is the only accurate method of determining
how much lime and fertilizer to apply to gardens. If too
little fertilizer is applied, plants will be starved and yield
and quality of vegetables will be reduced. Too much fertil-
izer will waste both fertilizer and money, as plants will be
unable to fully utilize it. Too much fertilizer can also injure
or kill plants.
David W. Sams, Professor
Plant & Soil Science
Acid soils resulting from a lack of lime can also prevent
nutrients from being taken up. Fertilization of acid soils can
thus be ineffective. A soil test is a relatively inexpensive
way of determining how much, if any, lime is required and
obtaining a fertilizer recommendation at the same time.
Specific information concerning how to sample soil
for a soil test and how to treat the sample after collection is
available at all county Extension offices. More information
is also contained in Extension SP 291-C,
Soil Preparation
for Vegetable Gardens
.
Varieties that climb or that are adapted to plant sup-
ports such as stakes or cages are also well adapted to small
gardens.
Plan for Rotation
Closely related plants can be grouped into families.
Families of plants tend to be susceptible to many of the
same insect, disease and nematode problems. By grouping
vegetable plants into families and moving each family to a
different location within the garden each year, many insect
and disease problems can be reduced. Plan to group your
vegetables by families and to rotate families to different
areas of the garden each year. See Table 1 for suggested
vegetable groups for rotation.
Vegetable Selection
After an appropriate site is located and evaluated, de-
cide which vegetables to grow. Consider the likes and dis-
likes of your family. Consider also the space requirements
of the vegetable. Winter squash and pumpkins require con-
siderable space and may not be practical for small gardens.
Corn requires quite a bit of space and bears only once.If
space is limited, it might be better to plant vegetables such
as summer squash, peppers and tomatoes rather than corn.
All of these bear large amounts of fruit over an extended
harvest period in a small area.
Consider also your philosophy about using agricultural
chemicals in the garden. Some vegetables, such as okra, will
nearly always produce a crop with or without chemical pest
control. Others, such as cabbage and broccoli, are generally
heavily infested by insect pests. Organic gardeners and oth-
ers who wish to avoid the use of agricultural chemicals may
wish to grow more pest-resistant crops such as okra and few
crops highly susceptible to insects and diseases.
Sketch a Plan
Finally, if you really want to be organized, make a
scale drawing of your garden. This is undoubtedly the
greatest planning aid one can have.
Table 1: Examples of Crop Groupings
to Reduce Diseases
1
Group Crop
Disease(s) Reduced
Group A Cantaloupe
Cucumber
Pumpkin
Squash
Watermelon
Microdochium Blight
Fusarium Wilt
Gummy stem blight
Anthracnose
Scab, Belly Rot
Angular leaf spot
Nematodes
Variety Selection
Many vegetable varieties have been observed or tested
in gardens across Tennessee. The best of these are recom-
mended in SP 291-O,
Guide to Spring-Planted, Cool-
Season Vegetables
, SP 291-P,
Guide to Warm-Season
Vegetables
and SP 291-G,
Fall Vegetable Gardens
. There
are also heirloom varieties, All-American varieties and
family or regional favorites. All of these have a record of
performing well locally or over broad, geographic areas
of Tennessee. Grow recommended varieties or varieties
known to perform well whenever possible.
Disease-resistant varieties tend to produce well with
less chemical input. Many disease-resistant varieties are
listed in SP 277-K,
Disease Resistance in Recommended
Vegetables for Home Gardens
.
Hybrid varieties tend to be more disease-resistant than
non-hybrid varieties. Hybrid varieties also tend to have high
quality and yields. Do not save seed of hybrid varieties,
as the plants grown from this seed will not be true to the
desired variety.
Small gardens may benefit from compact varieties de-
signed to grow in small spaces. These are widely available
and frequently produce more in less space.
Group B
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Collards
Lettuce
Mustard
Radish
Rutabaga
Spinach
Swiss chard
Turnip
Black leg
Club root
Black rot
Group C Eggplant
Irish potato
Okra
Pepper
Tomato
Bacterial canker
Early blight
Nematodes
Potato scab
Group D Beet
Carrot
Garlic
Shallot
Sweet Potato
Scurf
Black rot
Wilt
Nematodes
Group E Sweet corn Smut
Group F Bean
Cowpea
Peas
Fusarium root rot
Anthracnose
Nematodes
1
Rotate to a crop in a different group when planting successive crops
in the same location in the garden.
Begin with a scale drawing of the site. Graph paper
makes the drawing easy to construct and to work with, but
any kind of paper will do. Divide the drawing into two sec-
tions. Plan to plant cool-season vegetables in one section
and warm-season vegetables in the other. The cool-season
section will be harvested by mid-summer and can be re-
planted for a fall garden. Alternate the warm- and cool-sea-
son sections each year to reduce plant disease.
Sketch and label rows of each vegetable on your plan
using the row spacings suggested in SP 291-O,
Guide to
Spring-Planted, Cool-Season Vegetables
and SP 291-P,
Guide to Warm-Season Vegetables
. Arrange the veg-
etables so tall vegetables will not shade shorter ones. Write
the variety to be planted, planting or transplanting date and
amount of seed required on the planting plan. Be sure to
plan for staggered plantings to extend the season.
With a plan, you can plant an efficient garden when
planting time arrives. Note on your plan or in a garden
calendar the dates when you actually planted, special pro-
cedures used and how acceptable the varieties were. This
information will be used in planning your next garden.
Figure 1 illustrates a sample garden plan.
Figure 1: A sample garden plan
36"
1 pkt. Clemson Spineless Okra planted in May
108"
1/4 lb. Silver Queen Sweet Corn planted in 3 halfrows in late
April 30” apart.
1/4 lb. Silver Queen Sweet Corn planted in 3 half rowsin May.
48" 11 Better Boy Tomatoes transplated in April--staked 11 Better Boy tomatoes set from pre-rooted suckers inJune--staked
60" 1 pkt. Butter Bar Summer Squash planted in May
1 pkt. Burpless Cucumber planted in May
36" 10 Black Beauty Eggplant transplanted in May
6 California Wonder and 6 Hungarian Pepper set in May
36" 2 oz. Provider Snapbeans planted in April in 2rows 10” apart.
2 oz. Roma II Snapbeans planted in May
36"
1/4 lb. Fordhook 242 Bush Lima Beans planted in May
55ft. 36"
2 oz. Pinkeye Purple Hull Peas planted in May
48"
35 Centennial Sweet Potatoes set in May
36"
30 Stonehead Cabbage transplants set in March
36"
30 Premium Crop Broccoli transplants set in late March
36"
30 Snow Crown Caulifl ower transplants set in late March
36" 2 pkt. Detroit Dark Red Beets in double rowplanted in March
1 pkt. Vates Collards planted in March
24" 2 pkt. Danvers Carrots in double row 4” apartplanted in March
1 pkt. Cherry Bell Radish planted in March
24"
1 pkt. Just Right Turnip planted in March
1 pkt. Simpson Lettuce planted in March
24"
200 Danvers Onion sets 3” apart set in March
45 ft.
Programs in agriculture and natural resources, 4-H youth development, family and consumer sciences, and resource development.
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture and county governments cooperating.
UT Extension provides equal opportunities in programs and employment.
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